Wednesday, February 18, 2015

This
morning as I googled, it was an interesting page – the google doodle !

Alessandro
Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (February 18, 1745 – March 5, 1827) was an
Italian physicist – the Google Doodle for the day celebrates what would have
been the 270th birthday of the Italian physicist who in the year 1800
published a theory that led to the modern battery. As TIME wrote back in 2007,
Volta “realized metals could produce a current and developed the first battery,
or ‘voltaic pile,’ a series of copper and zinc strips in salt water that gave
off an electric current instead of static electricity.”

Experimenting with
different metals and solutions, Volta ended up creating the first electric
battery: the Voltaic Pile, a battery so remarkable was that it was easy to
construct out of common materials and enabled experimenters for the first time
to produce steady, predictable flows of electricity. Within just weeks it
inspired a wave of discoveries and inventions and ushered in a new age of
electrical science.

Born in 1745 in
Como, Italy, Volta’s invention was the result of a professional competition
with Luigi Galvani, who discovered that dissected frogs’ legs would twitch when
probed with a wire. Galvani believed the frogs’ muscles generated the
electricity, while Volta thought the animal tissue was only a conductor. The
debate galvanized Volta to experiment with conductivity (often on his own
tongue). Eventually, Volta put together a stack of metal disks and when metal
wires were connected to both ends of the stack, an electric current flowed
through the pile, proving that animal tissue was not necessary to generate an
electric current. In announcing his discovery of his voltaic pile, Volta paid
tribute to the influences of William Nicholson, Tiberius Cavallo, and Abraham
Bennet.

The battery made by
Volta is credited as the first electrochemical cell. It consisted of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the
other of copper. The electrolyte was either sulfuric acid mixed with water or a
form of saltwater brine. It was proved
that within these two terminals, an electric current will flow if they are
connected.

In honour of his
work, Volta was made a Count by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1810. His image was depicted on the Italian 10,000
lira note along with a sketch of his voltaic pile. Volta retired in 1819 to his
estate in Camnago, a frazione of Como, Italy, now named "Camnago
Volta" in his honour. Volta's
legacy is celebrated by the Tempio Voltiano memorial located in the public
gardens by the lake.

The
Google Doodle of the day honours Volta’s discovery with an animated battery
that is reminiscent of both a voltaic pile and a battery life reminder on a
modern day smart phone. The man who made the doodle
describes in Google blog that it was exciting to design the Doodle for Volta
and just was his second doodle. Having
done the initial research, he says ‘I didn’t want to just settle on using
Volta’s portrait for the Doodle, especially since most of the world wouldn’t
recognize him. I wanted instead to represent his accomplishment. Digging into visual research I looked first
for images of his inventions, then wider to other scientific equipment of the
time. WIth an interest in graphic design I also looked to designs of the period
and was especially inspired by the intricate and ornate details of some early
Victorian posters for their dimensionality and dynamic layout.’